William Friedkin: Superhero Movies Are Ruining Cinema

It looks like William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist and the even manlier To Live and Die in L.A., has had enough of commercial three hour toy figurine adverts brought to life with wall to wall CGI.

The acclaimed 79-year-old filmmaker, who is currently working for television channel HBO on a series about Mae West, told AFP reporter Sophie Laubie: “Films used to be rooted in gravity. They were about real people doing real things. Today cinema in America is all about Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Avengers, Hunger Games: all kinds of stuff that I have no interest in seeing at all.”

A few years back when Walter Hill was promoting Bullet to the Head, starring Sylvester Stallone, he said something similar, lamenting ridiculous action in movies.  Hill said that if action scenes aren’t at least somewhat believable, then there’s no point as people, intelligent people at least, can’t relate to what’s happening on screen.  And really, does the ‘it’s just dumb fun’ trope really cut it anymore?

Good man, William…